Brooklyn four-piece Be Decent have released their debut album ‘Now’s The Time’, along with a new video for ‘Try Not To Die’.

The band formed in 2022, when bassist Ken Partridge and drummer Geoff Bickford put out a call for musicians during the strange tail end of the pandemic years. Singer and guitarist Jimmy Doyle came aboard, followed later by saxophonist Matt Mason, and the resulting group quickly found common ground in ska, reggae and soul without treating any of them as museum pieces.

There are plenty of older records lurking behind Be Decent. The Clash, The Jam, Elvis Costello and Dexys Midnight Runners are obvious reference points, as is the American ska that surrounded several members when they were younger. Doyle previously played with The Fad and The Forthrights, while Mason’s CV includes work with The Pietasters, Bad Manners and a fairly ridiculous number of other ska-related outfits.

None of that would matter much if ‘Now’s The Time’ simply sounded like a collection of records they already owned.

Thankfully it doesn’t.

‘Try Not To Die’ is a good example. It has the bounce you might expect, but the title is not simply there for a laugh. Much of the album is about the ordinary business of trying to keep yourself together when money is short, your head is giving you trouble and the wider world seems determined to make things harder than necessary.

The band borrow Paul Weller’s phrase “the constant struggle just to exist” to describe the record, and it fits rather well. ‘Struggle’ and ‘You Better Work’ deal with mental health, ‘Hole’ with financial insecurity, while songs such as ‘Hateful’, ‘Can’t Argue’ and ‘Try Not To Die’ look outward at a society where people increasingly seem to be talking past one another.

Fortunately, Be Decent are not interested in spending 15 songs telling you that everything is awful.

There is a stubbornly upbeat streak running through the record, sometimes in the lyrics and sometimes simply in the way the band play. ‘All That I Need’ is their song for New York, while the title track is less a grand declaration than a reminder to get on with whatever can actually be done today.

Ted Leo turns up on ‘Human Nature’, which feels like a particularly sensible guest appearance for a band whose music sits somewhere between punk economy, soul records and the less self-conscious end of ska.

‘Now’s The Time’ was recorded by Mitch Rackin, whose previous work includes The Slackers and Psychic Ills, and mixed by “Agent” Jay Nugent of The Slackers. Rackin also mastered the record. J Bonner, whose artwork credits stretch from Rancid and Jimmy Cliff to Studio One, handled the suitably old-school sleeve.

There are fifteen songs altogether, which sounds generous for a debut, though Be Decent hardly come across as a band inclined towards half measures.

Perhaps that is the point of calling your first album ‘Now’s The Time’.